Labels

Contributors

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Letters from an Editor

I came across this interview with a successful literary agent, and thought it was worth sharing. Here's one thing that jumped out to me:

For thirty years I have observed fiction careers. I’ve seen them succeed and fail. The more I see, the more I feel that novelists fall into two broad categories: those whose desire is to be published, and those whose passion is to spin stories. I think of these as status seekers and storytellers.

You can’t tell the difference right away, but over the course of a career it always emerges. Status seekers focus on self-promotion and obsess about the industry. Storytellers ignore that stuff and focus on improving their novels. Guess who succeeds and who fails?

He also has a new book out called "The Fire in Fiction". It's been added to my wish list, though I've got WAY too many books to order this quite yet.